After Andrew brings his brother Peter to Jesus, the narrative in John 1 continues, but there are some similar events in the next section. Jesus is heading from Bethany (see John 1:28) to Galilee (see John 1:43). He finds this guy named Philip, and calls Philip to follow Him.
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
John 1:43-46 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.1.43-46.NIV
Like Andrew (see John 1:35-42, discussed in the previous couple of articles), when Philip meets Jesus, he goes and finds someone else. Now, I’m not sure if Simon pushed back when his brother Andrew invited him to see Jesus, but the author of the gospel doesn’t seem to mention it. So, regardless of whether Simon was skeptical (or if he just wanted to fish more), or if he was excited and eager to follow up on his brother’s good news, that earlier narrative moves directly to Andrew bringing Simon to Jesus.
With Nathanael, though, it’s a little different. Maybe it was a mistake for Philip to mention Nazareth. Maybe Philip knew that Nathanael would give him trouble for even saying the name of that city. I wonder if he regretted it as soon as it came out of his mouth, or maybe Philip knew better and still brought up Nazareth anyway, just to get a rise out of him.
Every place seems to have its “foil” – some other place whose residents they pick on – sometimes in good humor, sometimes in a mean way. It might be the next city, state, region, or country, but many cultures seem to hassle a group nearby who is different from them. (Of course, we should be polite and kind to our neighbors, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t jokes going around.)
In fairness, though, there’s a second point to consider in Nathanael’s reply, here: The Messiah was supposed to be from Bethlehem. Years earlier, when Magi inquired about the king of the Jews, those counseling Herod knew this (see Matthew 2:3-6), and I wouldn’t be surprised if Nathanael knew it, too. It wasn’t necessarily clear from Philip’s statement here how Jesus, 1) had been born in Bethlehem because of a special census requirement (see Luke 2:1-7), 2) had been taken by His parents to Egypt for a while to avoid Herod’s “kill order” (see Matthew 2:13-18) and then, 3) his stepdad Joseph lived in Nazareth to avoid Herod’s son in Judea (see Matthew 2:19-23). If you just heard the end of the story – that Jesus was a Nazarene – the limited facts didn’t seem to fit expectations. Jesus fulfilled all that was prophesied about Him, of course, but Nathanael didn’t necessarily have the advantage of all this information, especially when Philip initially shared this news with him.
Regardless of why Nathanael felt a certain way about Nazareth, have you ever been excited to share something, and had someone else just throw cold water on it? That’s kind of a bummer, and while the other person might just be answering reflexively (giving the standard “joke answer” that always follows the mention of a particular topic), it can take away from your own excitement.
Philip doesn’t give up, though. Like the friend or sibling that says, “Prove it”, Philip basically says, “Don’t just take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.” I can imagine Nathanael saying – maybe just to himself – something like, “OK, but when this proves to be another hoax, I’m never going to let you live it down!”
Even today, sometimes all that is needed to change a friend’s life is to invite them to see the truth of God, the person of Jesus, and the joy of following Him for themselves.
We also want to be at least a little bit like Nathanael, and actually give others a chance to show us what they are talking about. So much is dismissed in our culture today without actually taking a careful look at it, or hearing the details, so let’s not be like that. This doesn’t mean that we have to accept things that are clearly untrue, or follow other people into sinful behavior. Rather, I am referring to how we may miss the subtleties of other people’s backgrounds and context when we judge them too quickly.
Yes, people make bad decisions and support statements that we know are wrong. (I’m sure that I do that, too.) However, have we considered that maybe “other” people (those who we are tempted to dismiss as sinners) are hurting and desperate for something better? Do we think about the possibility that they are confused and simply haven’t been offered an alternative to their current lifestyle? Could there be a situation that we haven’t thought of, but will make more sense if we mentally stick around and don’t immediately tune them out in judgment?
Sometimes, when another person offers pushback to good news, we simply need to invite them to check it out for themselves, and make their own decisions from the facts.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for February 4, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, February 4, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – John, by Beauford H. Bryant and Mark S. Krause. © 1998 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 